The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to handling spanning tree protocol traffic in information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some information handling systems such as, for example, switch devices, utilize the spanning tree protocol in order to build a logical, loop-free topology in a network. For example, the spanning tree protocol may operate to create a spanning tree within a network of switch devices that operate as connected layer-2 bridges by disabling links that are not part of the spanning tree in order to leave a single active path between any two network nodes. However, the use of the spanning tree protocol can raise some issues in some situations such as, for example, when a switch device that has the spanning tree protocol enabled is connected to an access port of another switch device. For example, some switch devices may not have a dedicated management port that may be connected to a Top of Rack (ToR) switch to manage the switch device. However, most or all of the ports of ToR switches are typically configured as access ports for connecting to end user devices, rather than trunk ports for connecting to switch devices. These access ports may have spanning tree protocol blocking mechanisms such as, for example, bridge protocol data unit (BPDU) Guards and/or BPDU Filters that prevent a rogue switch that has the spanning tree protocol enabled from influencing the spanning tree protocol topology of the network through these ports. Thus, a switch device that is coupled to an access port of a ToR switch for management purposes may send BPDU frames to the ToR switch when the spanning tree protocol is enabled, and the ToR switch will block the access port to prevent a spanning tree protocol topology change, which results in the switch device connected to the access port of the ToR switch being inaccessible.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved spanning tree protocol traffic handling system.